Chapter 4

Maya POV

The Anniversary Gala was mandatory.

Despite having blocked his number, Liam had sent a driver to pick me up.

The driver had strict orders.

"Mr. Ricci insists, Ma'am."

I could have run then.

But I wasn't ready.

I needed to see him one last time.

I needed him to see me.

I wore a black dress. It felt appropriate for mourning.

The ballroom was suffocating.

The smell of expensive perfume and hypocrisy filled the air, thick enough to taste.

Liam was on stage, holding a microphone.

He looked handsome.

Devilishly handsome.

"To my wife," he said, raising a glass. "My rock. My conscience."

The crowd applauded.

He beckoned me up to the stage.

I walked up the stairs.

My legs felt heavy, like lead.

He pulled a velvet box from his pocket.

He opened it.

A diamond necklace.

Massive. Ostentatious.

And utterly tasteless.

"Happy anniversary, darling," he said, clasping it around my neck.

The cold metal stung my skin like ice.

I looked at the crowd.

I saw Marc Chen smirking in the front row.

And then, the doors at the back of the hall slammed open.

The music cut out.

Heads whipped around.

Ava Sinclair walked in.

She wasn't wearing red tonight.

She was wearing white.

And she was holding her stomach.

It was small, but visible.

A bump.

She walked straight down the aisle, her eyes locked on Liam.

"Stop the lies, Liam!" she screamed.

\ The silence in the room was absolute.

"Ava?" Liam's face went pale. "What are you doing here?"

"Tell her!" Ava pointed a trembling finger at me. "Tell her about us! Tell her about our baby!"

Gasps rippled through the room.

I stood frozen.

I looked at Liam.

He didn't look at me.

He looked at Ava.

He looked terrified. Not for me. For her.

"Security!" Marc yelled, surging forward. "Get her out of here!"

"No!" Ava shouted. She broke free from a guard.

She ran up the stairs to the stage.

She stood right in front of me.

"He doesn't want you," she spat. "He loves me. I'm carrying his heir."

She looked at the necklace Liam had just fastened on me.

"That's mine," she said.

She reached out and yanked the necklace.

The clasp snapped.

Pain flared in my neck.

She threw the diamonds on the floor.

"He promised that to me!"

Something inside me snapped.

The weeks of silence.

The humiliation.

The grief for the child I hadn't even met yet.

It all exploded.

I stepped forward and slapped her.

The sound echoed like a gunshot.

Ava stumbled back, clutching her cheek.

"You bitch!" she shrieked.

Liam moved.

Fast.

Too fast.

He didn't grab Ava.

He grabbed me.

"Stop it, Maya!" he roared.

He shoved me.

He likely meant to just push me away.

But he used too much force.

And I was wearing heels.

I lost my balance.

I fell backward.

Hard.

My lower back collided with the edge of the heavy speaker monitor.

Pain blinded me white-hot and instant.

I crumpled to the floor.

"Maya!" someone screamed.

I looked up through the haze.

Liam was holding Ava.

He was checking her face.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

He wasn't looking at me.

I felt a wetness between my legs.

Warm.

Sticky.

I looked down.

Blood.

Bright red blood was soaking into the black fabric of my dress.

It pooled on the white stage floor.

My baby.

The choice had been taken from me.

Violence had made the decision.

"Liam..." I whispered.

He looked down then.

He saw the blood.

His eyes widened in horror.

But Marc was there, whispering urgently in his ear. "Get Ava out. The press. The scandal. Go."

Liam hesitated for a second.

Just one second.

Then he made his choice.

He wrapped his arm around Ava.

"Let's go," he said.

He turned his back on me.

He walked away, shielding his mistress, leaving his wife bleeding out on the stage.

Ava looked back over his shoulder.

She smiled.

A cruel, victorious smile.

The room spun.

Flashes of cameras went off, blinding me.

They were taking pictures of my ruin.

I lay in the puddle of my own blood.

My hand touched something cold.

The diamond necklace.

It lay there in the crimson pool, glittering under the stage lights.

Broken.

Just like me.

I closed my eyes.

I didn't feel the pain anymore.

I only felt the hate.

It burned hotter than love ever had.